sporting overload

This is my favourite sporting time of year. Why? Because Wimbledon is on - come on, Andy Murray! :oD - and today the Tour de France started. This is how google marked the start of the tour today. I love it!

I don't know what it is that facinates me about the Tour. I think a lot of it has to do with the coverage we get from Eurosport. They have lots of helicopters to show the action but they also show us the countryside and the castles and monasteries and farms and crops and towns and villages and houses with swimming pools and the warm weather and all sorts of lovely things like that.

I think they do it deliberately so that I, sitting inside in my living room in Scotland because it's raining and cold outside again, get jealous and want to move to France. I wonder if my schoolgirl French - "Bonjour. Je m'appelle Anne. J'ai douze ans" would see me through? Non? Drat! :oD

twin needle quilting

I decided to do the quilting part of the oven gloves which I cut out a few weeks ago. I started with my usual straight stitch.

When I was doing that one, I wondered how it would look using the twin needle.

Then I wondered how it would look using the twin needle and some fancy stitches.

For the last one, I went back to the wavy lines just because I could!

I don't know when I had so much fun just quilting oven gloves!

I've put them aside for now as I really have to get on with some dressmaking. All those summer dresses waiting to be made. If I'm not careful, summer will be gone and they still won't be made. Who said "just like last year"?? Sad but true! *blush*

Molly and the Dolly

I was asked the other day if I could make a quilt for a dolly. Well, of course I can, says I. As usual, my biggest problem was wondering which design to make. Then it dawned on me that I could make a miniature version of the paintbox baby quilt I made not so long ago.

I had so much fun with this one. The fact that it's all been made from left-over bits from that baby quilt with a few other bits - all out of my scrap boxes - is an added bonus. Don't you just love it? I do!

I have no idea what size the dolly is that's getting this quilt - I was told it was a "normal sized doll" - so I've made it big enough for Grace to have a picnic on. Doesn't she look fab on it?

Mind you, Molly wasn't too sure. She was a wee bitty scared of Grace.

Molly finally sat down but all the time she was growling and wondering when this tiny person was going to get up and do something!

This photo just shows Molly's paws as she decided to get a wee bit closer. I managed to rescue Grace from the jaws of inevitable destruction!

Actually, that's a lie. Molly wouldn't destroy Grace - she's too scared of her to even try! :oD

the longest day

It's the longest day today (in the northern hemisphere).

According to that widget, which I have on the dashboard of my computer, today we had just short of 18 hours between sunrise and sunset and just short of 20 hours between dawn and dusk. That is a l-o-t of hours of daylight!

I also have this widget on my dashboard which shows the shape the sun makes on the earth.

As it's almost 11pm here, Scotland is now in the dark bit but you can see how close we are to the top of that dark bit - no wonder we get lots of hours of daylight!

Now, when I was looking at my dashboard to take those screenshots, this weather forecast one caught my eye.

Ahhh, the joys of summer in Scotland! :oD

oven gloves - my new pattern

I decided to give the bag sewing a rest and got started making the oven gloves which I made up the pattern for the other week. I took my time making the first one and noted down what I did so that, when I make them again (after this batch), I won't have to rethink how I did it.

I then made these 2 with some bias binding I made last week.

I was telling the girl in the fabric shop today (I go there to waste the half hour that my Mum is at the hairdresser's) that I got more than 28 metres of bias binding out of a metre of fabric. She was astounded - and didn't blame me for making it myself when the cost of the fabric was £3.50 and the cost of their fancy bias binding is £1.25 per metre. 28 x £1.25 is £35 so that's 10 times the price to buy ready made bias binding. Wow! Maybe I should go into the bias binding making business?? Emmm, no. :o)

the owls have it

Yesterday I made the other 2 bags from the seaside/beach hut print. I just adore this fabric and, if I get a chance, I'm going to head back to Dunelm Mill to see if there's any left.

These ones have a red polka dot lining very similar to the other bag I showed last time but the dots are not so teeny tiny.

Today I made up 3 bags with this cute owls print.

They're all lined with a bright pink polka dot fabric.

These are all in the tartan bee shop.

I honestly thought I'd be bored sewing all the things I cut out but I'm not ... yet. I do have some a lot of dressmaking that I'd like to do but, as long as the mood is taking me to just sew the bags or the oven gloves, then I'm going to stick with it.

paw prints and seaside bags

I got another 3 bags made today, photographed all the bags I've sewn this week and loaded them into the tartan bee shop. Phew! I'm exhausted now! I think I need a wee lie down! :oD

Here they are - the first 2 I showed already so feel free to scroll past those ones.

There are 2 of this next one.

I have another 2 cut out of this seaside print but the inside fabric will be different so this one needed its own listing.

I might have a bit of a rest from sewing bags over the weekend. Or maybe I won't. It'll depend on the weather and whether I can think of something else I'd rather be doing! :o)

pinnies done, bags started

I managed to get the pinnies (aprons) done yesterday and I got them loaded into the tartan bee Etsy shop today.

There are 2 of this seaside print - doesn't it make you want to dig out your spade and pail and go to the beach?

And there are 5 of these adorable chickens. I don't know why but they just make me smile. :o)

Today I got some bags made but I've not taken photos for the shop yet. Hopefully the sun will come out in the next few days so I can get that done!

I made 2 of this one but one of them had a dirty mark on it that I didn't see until I was giving it its final press. Debbie took that one off my hands! (Please excuse the pink sock - I meant to crop it out in Photoshop but I forgot!)

The bags are reversible so this lovely flowery fabric could easily be on the outside.

I just adore these paw prints. Joanna has already "bought" one of these - I told her to buy me something nice in exchange!

The stripey inside.

I suppose I really should stop sewing and do some housework ... or maybe not! :oD

and sew - it begins

I had thought I might keep cutting out more things this week but I had already filled 2 crates so this morning I made myself not cut out any more and get on with the sewing.

Just to keep a tally of what I've got cut out, there are : 17 shopping bags on the left and 12 grocery bags on the right (a different pattern from the other ones) -

15 rectangular oven gloves on the left and 10 round oven gloves on the right -

and 8 pinnies (aprons).

I got 6 of the pinnies done today with only the ties to sew on of the other 2 so not too bad a day sewing wise. I did discover that one of the pinnies had a flaw in the fabric so that one will stay with me - yay! I'll hopefully get photos of those tomorrow so I can show them here and upload them to the tartan bee.

bump and bias

Bump and Bias sounds like it should be a glam rock group from the 70s! They would all be dressed up in silver suits and they'd wear huge platform boots - again in silver - and we would all gyrate around the dance floor to the beat. Ahhh, those were the days! I remember them well! :oD

Anyway, I digress! I finally got all the bump (wadding) and InsulBright cut out for the oven gloves.

I needed some more bias binding so I set to this afternoon and got that started - my tutorial for how I make bias binding is here. As you can see, I had my iPad tuned in to watch/listen to the French Open tennis.

I didn't get it all quite finished because the sun was shining and, in Scotland, when the sun comes out you just *have* to go outside because you just know it won't last long! This is as far as I got with the bias - one done, 3 to go.

And finally, Douglas and I went out for our monthly snack this morning so, naturally, there's a photo of my sconnage. Yummmmmmmm!

more cutting out

I decided that, rather than start the sewing of the 14 bags I cut out on Monday, I'd just keep going and cut out more.

I cut out another 7 yesterday -

... and one more this morning (in a crate with all the others I've cut out) -

Then I got the idea that, since I was enjoying the cutting out so much, I would cut out some oven gloves as well. I had a whole crate of wee bits saved for making my round oven gloves so I dug through it and got started. Some of them needed new bias binding made so I did that as well.

I then decided I'd like to make another kind of glove. A bit like the round ones but more rectangular so out came the paper and, after a few re-cuts to get the shape the way I wanted, I had my new pattern made.

So, of course, I then started cutting out some of those too. By the end of the day, I had cut out 28 oven gloves! Wow!!

Now I need to cut out the wadding and the InsulBright to put inside them.

I'm really enjoying this cutting out spree so I'm just going to keep going with it. I'm not saying I'll sew all of these things up in one go - I know myself well enough to know that's not going to happen - but, when the sewing urge takes hold, I'll have a whole pile of things ready to be made. Fun! :o)

a busy tartan bee

I decided that I needed to do some sewing for the tartan bee shop so today I dug out some fabrics and set to with the scissors and rotary cutter. I cut out 14 shopping bags in total!

In today's pile there are 9 straight bags -

- and 5 of the grocery bag pattern which I got here. I'm doing the large size for these ones.

I like all the bags I cut out today but I really love these owls. Aren't they cute?

There are still some fabrics waiting to be cut out so I'll probably do that before I get on with sewing them all up. I can see I'm going to be a really busy tartan bee! :o)

baby paintbox quilt all finished

I sewed the last of the binding on the baby quilt today and, oh my goodness, I am so happy with it. I LOVE it!

Here's the rest of the story of the quilt.

First I pinned the quilt top to the fleece backing.

After the first set of diagonals had been sewn.

Sewing the second set of diagonals.

Pinning the binding on to the back - it had already been machine stitched on to the front.

I finished it this morning as we sat outside in the sunshine so I hung it over the washing line to take some photos. But the wind just kept playing with the quilt. (Hello, Debbie! :oD)

Back and forward. (Hello, half of Jason! :oD)

Left and right. (Hello, Rosie! :oD)

A close up of the squares and the quilting.

And the backing with the tartan bee label all sewn on.

I might be just a wee bit biased but I think it's gorgeous and fun and fabulous. I hope the mummy and baby will love it too.